JenkoSo if I use cup-head bolts and through bolt the stuffing box without a backing plate I'm a bit worried about water seeping in and causing rot. What do you think about my recessing the cup-heads into the bottom and then epoxying over them. The bottom will be painted and the bolt heads will never be seen.

Tony Hain"Never under-estimate the bounds of human stupidity" (Robert Heinlein)and on a more optimistic note "nor the capacity for human brilliance"

I would get the backing plate and use the counter sunk silicon bronze screws to mount the rudder port. I planked around the rudder port pad and strut pad leaving them flat so they were all level and in plane. I lined the rudder port hole and shaft hole with fiberglass tubing. Use copious amounts of 3M 4200 to seal.

TonyI just made the backing plate out of .090" brass sheet. The plate is the same dimension as the flange on the log. Holes were countersunk into the plate then using 1/4" countersunk SB metal threads through the keel and log flange. I have a bit of this brass left over so if you want it send me a PM with your address.Alan

TonyBoatcraft Pacific at Loganholme have the 1/4" csk SB bolts. They also have the 3/8" csk SB bolts for the prop strut. I searched the world to find these and found Boatcraft Pacific who are located about 5 minutes from where I live had them all the time! Alan

Well I have finish the preliminary set-up for the prop strut, rudder and skeg. I'm quite happy with the result. So next is a final sand. I might give the hull a wipe over with a damp cloth to raise the fibres and close up the holes from the staples before the final sand though. What do people think? Is it necessary? I hope to do the sanding in the next week as after that I wont be able to get much done for a couple of months. I start radium treatment the week after next. It will be for 7 weeks, Monday to Friday. The clinic is 1 1/2 hours drive each way so I guess it won't leave much time for anything else and the weekends will be doing what I should of been doing during the week. But all round I'm confident this will nail it.After treatment I hope to fibreglass the bottom, epoxy it and paint the bottom before December or high summer at least. It gets too hot in the shed to epoxy in summer.

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Tony Hain"Never under-estimate the bounds of human stupidity" (Robert Heinlein)and on a more optimistic note "nor the capacity for human brilliance"

Hi Tony....Looking good ..i would wet down to close them holes..i didnt on the transom and wish i had...it makes them harder to fill if you dont....Good luck with the treatment and hope you get back to building soon...

Well finally back into the build. Treatment seems to have gone well and the oncologist is happy with the results but they will never give you a definitive answer. By the time I finished treatment the weather had warmed up to 35 to 40 degrees C. Just too hot in the shed to work. Especially with epoxy so I have waited till it cooled down.Have done the fibreglass cloth on the bottom. Did it in two halves to the waterline. First half I did in the morning. Lots of bubbles from gasing out. Learnt my leasson and did the other haslf in the late afternoon with vertually no bubbles. Next I have to feather the edges of the fibreglass and put on more layers of epoxy to fill out the weave and generally smooth out the epoxying before painting. I will paint the bottom to the waterline and use a 2 pack PU above the water line. So I guess it is more epoxying and you guessed it!....."Sanding"....Yah!

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Tony Hain"Never under-estimate the bounds of human stupidity" (Robert Heinlein)and on a more optimistic note "nor the capacity for human brilliance"

Great to see you are back in business and great to hear that the treatment went well.Time to play catch up!You wont have to do too much to catch up to me though as it has been long road trying to get the time and money to complete.

Boat is looking great and cant wait to see it with a couple of more coats, timber colour looks great.